We still have absolutely no idea what the PlayStation 4 looks like, but we’re getting a better picture of what’s within: Sony’s just released a list of tech specs for the console. Confirming months of rumors, the PS4 will primarily have AMD silicon inside, in the form of a “single-chip custom processor” with eight AMD Jaguar CPU cores, and a next-gen Radeon graphics engine capable of 1.84 teraflops of performance.

But let’s talk about what we do know, starting with the hardware. For the PS4, Sony is using an x86-64 AMD processor with an integrated 8-core ‘Jaguar’ CPU and GPU. The GPU is capable of delivering 1.84 TFLOPS of performance, which pegs it slightly above AMD’s Radeon HD 7870 desktop GPU announced last year. The PS4 will also have 8GB of GDDR5 memory with around 176GB/s of memory bandwidth.

The PS4 will be sold with the new DualShock 4 controller, which looks very similar to the leaked prototype we saw last week. It features a two-point capacitive trackpad above the joystick and a three-color LED light bar on top, which changes color to identify player or even during a game to denote things such as player health.

Moving back to the console, there are quite a lot more new features to talk about, including:

Ability to stream games, thanks to the Gaikai cloud based service. This could be used in future to stream PS3, PS2 and PSOne games to the PS4.

Ability to stream PS4 games to the PSVita. Sony is aiming to offer virtually every PS4 game on the PSVita through streaming in the future.Ability to play games while they are downloading.

Ability to try any new game before purchasing.

Ability to record and upload game videos while playing games. The processing is done by a separate background processor. You can view videos uploaded by other players.

Ability to download games and updates while the console is switched off using the background processor.

Brand new interface for the PS4 as well as the PSVita.

New iOS and Android PlayStation App will let you use your smartphone as a second screen to view game details as well as view videos and other content uploaded by other gamers.

What does it all mean? Looking at the existing PlayStation 3, it’s immediately clear that Sony’s playing to its strengths while trying to address some of its former weaknesses.

At launch, critics slammed Sony for charging upwards of $500 for the PS3, arguing that it had too many features. HDMI, Wi-Fi and optical audio didn’t come standard on the Xbox 360 at launch, but they all proved important over the years. Meanwhile, the fast XDR memory of the PlayStation 3 came in handy, but there was far too little at 256MB. Here, Sony’s seeking to maintain the speed with GDDR5, but ups the capacity to a generous 8GB. Similarly, gamers ended up appreciating the PS3’s built-in hard drive when they started downloading games or installing them, but the first-generation 2x Blu-ray drive made that a painfully slow process.

There will be no backward compatibility of PS3 titles on the PS4, a direct result of the new processor architecture used on the latter. The Gaikai streaming feature remains the only hope to play older titles on the PS4, although that feature hasn’t been officially announced yet. You will be able to play used PS4 games on the new console, something a lot of people do.

Speaking of games, we have a handful of confirmed titles, including ‘Killzone: Shadow Fall’, ‘inFAMOUS: Second Son’, ‘Destiny’ by Bungie, ‘Deep Down’ (working title) by Capcom, ‘DriveClub’, ‘Knack’, ‘The Witness’, ‘Diablo III’ and ‘Watch_Dogs’ by Ubisoft.

As mentioned before, we still don’t know what the console looks like or will cost. All we know is that it is expected to be released by the holiday season by the end of this year.

It’s tonight at midnight that Sony will launch a new PlayStation!? in his great show, with the obvious aim of finally submit its fourth generation, currently called Orbis. The conference can be followed live through the world and you can watch it down below.

Find us at 6pm ET (NYC time) or 11pm (GMT +0) live here for a pre-conference where we can come together to discuss our expectations for the conference and the Playstation 4.